The Arizona sentinel., 1887-02-05
MAKING GLASSWARE.
How the Work Is Done and It's Effects
 Upon Those Who Do It.

Upon Those Who Do It.
 Scarcely any mechanical process IS So fascinating as glass-blowing, To stranger the spectacle presented in a glass factory is marvellous in the ex- treme. The seething, fiery furnaces with their contents of molten glass; the blowers and apprentices sweating and winking at their work, and the curious transformation of the glass during the different stages of the blowing process, render the scene as attractive and weird as the traditional blacksmith $ forge.
 As class the blowers are finely de- veloped men, both mentally and physi- cally. Personal contact with them proves them to be intelligent, industri- ous, fairly well educated and self-reli- ant. They must of necessity be strong and hardy in order to sustain the tre- mendous strain which their trade i'm poses on them. A great amount of strength and delicacy is required. In blowing window-glass the workman takes up from ten to twenty-five pounds of molten glass on the end of a pipe three-foUrths of an inch thick and fiv feet long, and is obliged to turn it continually in order to keep the glass uniform. His fingers are thus kept moving with the constancy and precis- ion of machine. Hellow-ware work is not so arduous, but it is more deli cate and critical. In gathering a lump of glass on the end of his pipe a prac- tical blower can measure by his sense of touch within an ounce of any re- quired weight.
 Window-glass blowing differs materi- ally from hollow-ware blowing. In window-glass factories the blower gath CTS large piece of glass, say lump weighing twenty or twenty-five pounds, on the end of his pipe, and rolls it on a concave iron block. He blows through the pipe and expands the lump of glass into a large ball. This is allowed to cool, and is then relocated and swung to and fro in a eswing hole" and rolled into cylindrical form. It is then placed on a s'horscn and the two ends are sliced from the cylinder, while a cut is made lengthwise on the convex side. It is then removed to the flattening oven, where the heat applied causes the cyl finder to unroll.
 To make hollow-ware the blower takes upon his pipe the proper quantity of glass, rolls it on block and blows it to the requisite size, relocated, placed in mold and slightly pressed. There are only few articles that are not mold ed, and they are flint-glass shades, chimneys and electrical globes. Moth ing is blown off-hand in green-glass factories.
 The blowers do not live long, so great is the strain on their physical sys- tenn. The men in the cities, for some unknown reason, seem to live longer than those in the country. The latter rarely live to be over thirty-five or forty. Their stock of vitality becomes exhausted at that age, and cOnsump- ton ensues. Nearly all glass-blowers who die are carried off by this disease This is due not only to the over-exer- ton of the lungs in blowing, but the sudden changes in the temperature. lii the warmer months the men are obliged to go into the open air to cool of, and by this, although sudden colds are rarely known, the seeds of con sumption are planted. In very hot weather the blowers must change their clothing two or three times a day, so thoroughly drenched with precipitation do they become. Their work is strenu- ous, arduous, continual hurry-hurry from the beginning of days work to the end.
 Eight hours is an average days work Work is continued only about eight months in the year, leaving out June, July, August and September. The req son for this vacation is three-fold. First at the end of the season the men who have been working steadily find them- selves physically prostrated, the in creased temperature out side rendering the hot air of the inside intolerable. Second. work is discontinued in order to avoid over-production and enable the manufacturers who have accumu- lated large stocks to sell before resum- ing again. Third, necessary repairs have to be made to the furnaces, and the summer months are selected as the most opportune season.
 The lowest daily wages received by q journeyman blower is $1.50 per day. The highest known is SIP to S15. This amount can be made only by the most ardUOus Over-eXertion, however, as when a man does two mems work, and it can not be kept up for any length of time. The average for good work man, under favorable circumstances, is about $50 per day. The apprentice boys earn oue-half the wages of jour neymen. They are allowed to draw only one-sixth of their wages, how ever, during their apprenticeship, the employers retaining fifty per cent as their own, and the balance, one-third more, is retained for the boy until the expiration of his term as security of continuance at service. A great many of the glass-workers go into the busi- ness early as helpers to the blowers, and, after gradually learning it, are taken on as apprentices, their term lasting from four to six years. In the window glass trade no aDDrantices arc